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State Crime: Breaking laws of the society in which crime takes place, sometimes states break their own rules.

International laws being broken. Idea certain general standards that our behaviour can be judged regardless of legislation.

Green & Ward give examples of state crime:

Genocide

War Crimes

Violence by the police

Torture and imprisonment of political opponents.

Grand corruption

McLaughlin- Claims state crimes divided into 4 types.

Political crime, e.g. rigging elections.

Crime of police and security forces such as torture and illegal detention.

Economic crime- failing to pay employees minimum wage.

Social and cultural crimes- mistreatment of minority ethnic groups.

Statistics of state crime-111 countries practised torture and ill treatment in 2009- violence by police.262 million people were killed by various forms of state action in 20th Century- genocide.120,000 civilians have been killed since the invasion of Iraq in 2003- war crimes.

State crime and human rights- Human rights: Every living human being is entitled to have right to life, liberty, freedom of thought, recognition before law and liberty (The UN, 2015).BUTSociologists have objected to the idea of universal human rights. As the idea of 'rights' socially constructed and what's seen as normal and appropriate vary between society. Some of the rights outlined are claimed to have liberal, western and individualistic bias.

Globalisation

World wide social relations meaning whatever happens in one country can affect what happens in other countries- Giddens.

Castells- Globalisation involves development of networks that cut across national boundaries- idea of self-contained societies is outdated. So knowledge, goods and people can move quickly, easily and cheaply across national boundaries so these networks have quickly developed. This has resulted in development of a global crime economy where there are between criminal networks.

The biggest global criminal businesses according to Castells are drugs, illegal arms trading, smuggling of illegal immigrants and human trafficking.

Effect of globalisation of crime

Harm to the economy- Criminals hold so much capital in some countries that it has major impact on economy. Organised crime is closely linked with government corruption which prevents effective law enforcement.

Cultural effects- Criminal careers made to seem more attractive than legitimate careers to young people.

Reduce the power of the nation state so difficult countries to deal with issues of crime.

Provides opportunities for committing crime in new ways- different legislation in different countries

Creates a new awareness of risk from foreign countries.

Cohen

Cohen conducted study into social relations to state crime and human right abuses- he defined state crime as "gross violations of human rights". States develop culture of denial to respond to accusations of abuse. No one taking responsibility.

Cohen devised 3 stage spiral of denial

Stage 1- it's claimed that event didn't happen, can be disputed by victims who could provide direct evidence of human rights violations.

Stage 2- state tries to redefine what has taken place as being something other than human rights abuse- might claim an accident.

Stage 3- might argue that although the human rights abuse has taken place, justified because it prevented greater harm to society.

Neutralisation

Denial of responsibility- individuals or state claim simply following orders. E.g. technique used in Nazi Germany

Denial of injury- could suggest that victims didn't really suffer so not a violation of human rights.

Denial of victims- claiming 'victims' are terrorists and therefore the state is the real victim. E.g. when torture used on suspects of terrorism.

Condemnation of the condemners- accusing those making judgements of being hypocrites and claiming they behave worse themselves.

Appeal to higher loyalties- abuses are seen as justified in pursuit of a greater good.